Judge Dismisses Long Shot White House Bid

WASHINGTON (CN) – An American born in Guyana will not be able to run for president of the United States or receive federal funding for his campaign, a federal judge ruled. Abdul Hassan sued the Federal Election Commission in December, claiming that his inability to collect federal funding for his campaign for the presidency under the Presidential Election Campaign Fund Act is unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan tossed the complaint for lack of standing and failure to state a claim, given that Hassan isn’t even eligible to run for president under constitutional mandate. “Hassan’s challenge to the Fund Act rests on his contention that the natural born citizen requirement has been implicitly repealed by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments,” states the judge. “The court need not repeat the thorough and persuasive opinions issued by its colleagues in at least five other jurisdictions, all of whom determined that the natural born citizen requirement has not been implicitly repealed by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments.” According to the ruling, Hassan, a naturalized American citizen, announced his candidacy in 2008, seeking the nomination of the Democratic Party. “Hassan satisfies all constitutional requirements for holding the Office of the President except the requirement established in Article II, section 1, clause 5 that the President be a natural born citizen,” the judge states.